The Death of Books

So my mother who has long been an avid book reader and collector. Decided that she wants to get an E-Book reader like a Kindle. And then sell all of her books. This makes me think. How many more people are doing this? How many kids have already decided that e-books are better and will be missing out on reading from an actual book. I myself love reading from actual books. I love going to bookstores and searching to find that one book your looking for and probably stumble upon a few you weren't looking for but had to get anyways. I love the feel of a new book in my hands. Then you open it to read the story within. And after you finish. You put it on a shelf to be a sort of trophy. A collectors item. I love collecting so maybe that's why I feel this way. But I still worry greatly that future generations will be denied the simple pleasures of a physical book. What do you all think?

I myself am a person who likes books for their unique properties that an ereader can never hope to replicate. The feel of a page, the crisp sound of flipping through pages and turning them, hell even the smell of ink and paper, that unmistakable book smell. Ereaders can't hope to recreate the unique experience I got when I wandered around Tampa finding any spot that caught my fancy and reading a while there while enjoying a cool breeze and the unmistakable feeling of turning pages and the feel of the paper in my hand. Maybe I over-romanticize the physical experience of reading a book, but I doubt I'm alone on this. I'm the type of person who uses a typewriter that's completely mechanical with individual arms for each letter and an ink well rather than a ribbon, I'm infatuated with the archaic experience and I don't intend to change that.

In all seriousness, there is something much more appealing sitting down, reading a book with god-knows-how-many-pages-it-has outside, the sun shining down than sitting down, inside a room, staring at the computer, reading god-knows-how-many-pages-it-has.

There are some things the oncoming world of electronics can never replace, and books are a perfect example of one of them.

And if books become extinct in the future, I pray for that generation, because they'll never know what it feels like to flip a page.

The purpose of an e-reader is to get you away from the computer. You'll find very few people who will say that reading an e-book on a computer is an enjoyable or even acceptable experience. Also for reading in the sun, e-ink is perfectly fine for that. The previous two posters have stated valid reasons for preferring or maintaining enjoyment of physical books, but your have not.

I honestly can't see death of books any time soon, I was dragged to check out one of those new fangled gadgets, So I went and checked out, the choice of books is still too slim compared to actual paper books. Not enough choices..

For manga, there was like what.. 300 mangas to choose from. :/

There's this whole licensing issue to work out if e-readers ever wanna beat books.

Books for stories is already available while there's whole bunch of stores that's not available as ebook yet.

As long as that remains, books will stay in circulation.

I enjoy having the physical form of what I purchase, in this case Books. E-Readers and Computers are subject to crashes, corruption, etc. At least with a book, you know it won't destroy itself or you won't have to depend on battery power for you to read.
Although it is probably a lot more accessible, There is something about holding it in your hands that I like.

There are so so sooooooo many books that aren't available digitally.

One would lose out a LOT if they forwent print entirely. Heck, especially for research and scholarly work, a lot of what you might need is not and may never be available digitially.

And any book with art, you lose out a bit when losing the chance to see it on paper.


One form of book that will never go digital (or at least TRUELY so)? Pop-up books! Unless of course some dumb 3D app is invented for them...

I'll be the first to say that i LOVE my warhammer 40k books. I reread many of the "Horus Heresy" series and "Ciaphas Cain" that i own, with various other favourites that possess pages that have turned yellow from age.

The scars on the book from opening the book, The rich smell of paper, the occasional folding of the page by incident or not are all testiment to the amount of time and adoration to the book and skill of the author. To lost such minute details is to lose the very core of reading. It's never the same.

Besides, to convert an author's inspiration to data means that internet pirates would have a easier time to do their magic. Profits will a shaky issue for the authors and may even deter future authors-to-be from investing in such a future.

Books must remain as they are.

I don't read books that much, but I am interested in buying DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, and I forgot the latest one. I know it's kind of out of date, but books is just different from e-reader.

I consider manga as a book, and if there were Shonen Jump English Translated at the place where I live I would buy them every week, rather than checking on internet.

I am sure there are plenty people who just love books and the death of books won't be coming anytime soon I guess.

I can't see books dying out. The feel of a real book completely surpasses and gives a feeling of intimacy(?) as if a passing of the story from writer to reader. E-readers also zone me out. Like kindle, if its a schoolbook, i just can't focus. I need an actual paperback/hardback to hold so that i can read. The pixels in e-readers seem to throw my attention out the window.



its called "the lost symbol" Decent book.interesting plot.

There probably will be an almost equal amount of books electronically as there are physically in the future. And although we get a better feeling from reading a physical book with every page smelling like a freshly printed page, etc, etc. The future generations will probably have some kind of Hipster/Mainstream "battle" go on between the two types. While we are getting used to this new technology, the new, upcoming ones will embrace these as they are in their childhood. More likely, future technology will provide more comfort with its other benefits that come with the e-books, as well as the portability of many books in one device.

I still read like a bossy professor!

As an avid reader, and owner of literally hundreds of books, I admit my preference is for having an actual book in my hand when I read. However, this Christmas I was given a Kindle and found it helpful to be able to change font size to a more legible format. I downloaded several books and found it easy to read, but I know I will miss having a hard copy of those books in my library later. I doubt I will rely on the Kindle for my major reading, but I can't deny its convenience.

We must face the facts, though, that the world is becoming more eco-friendly, and it is likely that our beloved paper books will fall into disfavor as new generations grow up more attuned to the digital age. It remains to be seen if the excess of electrical waste will have a greater global impact than deforestation, but that's a topic for different thread.

For me, I will likely stay with real books, and save the kindle for times when I travel and don't want to weigh myself down with a bunch of books.

I have already given my two cents about this, but I think the world will inevitably follow the path of electronics, and there is (almost) nothing we can do to stop it. I think the post above this one and many others articulate the beneits of having an e-book to a physical one

Havn't completed a book in years. I try to get into one, but even if i do. I still get bored with it half way and just leave it

Well, if books do go the way of the dinosaur, I'd feel terrible about all the little kids reading their first books on a fucking screen rather than in a regular book.

It'll take a long time, but I think books will be replaced largely by e-books. However, somehow I think that rather than becoming a replacement for solely books, documents from the office place would be nice to have in handy in a simple e-book. It would save a fuck-ton of paper which could be used for other purposes (mail, official documents).

It's doubtful that books will be replaced entirely by e-books; especially obscure books.

The selection that us real hardcore readers need just isn't available on an e-book. I've tried many times on my grandmothers kindle to look up some obscure fantasy novel and found it wasn't there. And don't get me started on manga. As for myself, I really do enjoy the physical feel of the paper, the weight, the smell, the sound, things that an e-reader just can't hope to compete with. Although I will admit that a kindle and its kin are a thousand times better than reading something on a computer screen.

I really agree with your statement. I'm a super technology geek and I love staring at screens as much as the next, but there is something about the texture of books that makes me happy. Manga is nearly impossible to find and a lot of the books I enjoy aren't really mainstream, so they are quite hard to find. I love reading books and just having them in general but I sometimes find it hard to find time to sit and cuddle up with a good book. I'm a bit addicted to audio books at the moment even thought I still buy the physical book. I wish everyone could find the same joy in holding a good book and reading it as I do.

E-readers are fine to carry stuff around with, but when I'm at home and I have the leather bound collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, I'd rather read that than the e-book version. It just feels... different to read a book.